Tuesday, November 6, 2012

My Spanish

I got up early this morning and actually worked out a little bit. Jumped some
rope, ran down to the town square and back, it felt good! Justin "Ed Zachtamundo" (my current riding partner) and I
said goodbye to our Federali guards and hit the road for Puebla. We decided to
take toll roads and just skip the hassle of trying to circumnavigate Mexico City
on free roads. And the toll roads are nice! Even though riding on a toll road
all day is more expensive than food and lodging for the day combined! Really
though, the toll roads are so nice that sometimes you forget you are in Mexico
and think you are back in the states on a freeway.

We've
moved really far inland and now we are up on the Mexican Alitplano. Today we
spend most of our time above 7,000 feet and topped out at almost 9,000! My poor
carburated "El Senior" is struggling to breathe up here and I can feel the
engine lagging as it tries to get enough oxygen for the fuel. Sometimes when I
stopped at toll booths and let the engine idle, it would quietly die and have to
be reved and re-started. If I stay up here much longer I'll probably have to
adjust the fuel/air mixture screw. Below picture is my GPS telling me how high I
am.

We
stopped for lunch and I ordered what I normally order: the most random thing on
the menu. Ed Zachtamundo followed my lead and we ordered what I guessed was some
kind of chicken soup. Nine times out of ten this works great and I get to try
something new and exciting. Today however, I ended up ordering a soup made out
of chicken feet and chicken liver. It actually tasted okay, and the liver was
palatable though stringy. But I just couldn't force myself to chew on one of
those feet........

The
ladies that ran the resteraunt were kind though. When I told them that Americans
don't normally eat chicken feet, they laughed at me, and then brought out a bowl
of normal chicken soup for Ed Zachtamundo, who was looking a little green after
his run in with chicken livers. The ladies kept giggling at us, the two silly
Americans, so as we left I convinced them to let us take a picture with
them.

We
rode the toll road for another hour then pulled off into a small, rundown town
about 30 miles east of Mexico city and found a cheap hotel for the night.
Luckily, our quest for secure parking has once again bore fruit as the
proprieters have installed animals in the parking area to scare off intruders. I
named this savage beast Hampton and gave him some dandilions in hopes that he
will keep a weather eye on "El Senior".

Tomorrow we ride for Puebla where we plan
on spending a day or two working on the bikes and seeing some actually touristy
stuff rather than riding our asses off all day every day.